Bend Sinister Get Conceptual

12/04/08 3:16pm

by Scott Bryson (CHARTattack)

Vancouver's Bend Sinister have made some significant transformations since forming seven years ago. What started as an instrumental prog rock experiment has morphed into a piano-driven rock outfit who don't have a problem tossing around terms like "concept album."

CHARTattack caught up with singer/guitarist Dan Moxon to discuss his band's latest disc, Stories Of Brothers, Tales Of Lovers, an epic societal joy ride written in two parts.

CHARTattack: Let's talk about your new album. Has a lot changed in your sound since last year's [self-titled] EP?
Dan Moxon: I'd say it has definitely changed since then. We have a new drummer and a new bass player on the record, so they added a lot of their feel to everything. And, in terms of my songwriting, I've definitely progressed to a level where I'm not always concerned about fitting a million things into each song. I'm trying to simplify things a bit more — get to the root of solid songwriting.

Do you see Stories Of Brothers and Tales Of Lovers as two full, separate albums, or is it more like one album in two acts?
It's connected as a whole because there are melodies that I touch on in the first half that I bring back in the second. There's an opening and an outro to the album that ties it together, but there's definitely a difference, musically, between the first half and the second half. My initial dream was to release it as a double LP, on vinyl, which we're still planning to do.

Is there much autobiography in the lyrics?
It's all fiction. There's a little bit of biography in this one song called "CT," but that's about the only song I've ever written that isn't fictional. It actually had something to do with a shitty experience we had with the record industry.

In reading some reviews of this disc, I saw that Bend Sinister was compared to every band under the sun: Queen, The Beatles, Muse, Boston — even Bon Jovi. Was there anyone you were consciously trying to emulate, or anyone that was an inspiration?
There are tons of people I have respect for in the classic rock world. There are blatant, on-the-nose nods to The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin on the first song. I've noticed a few people comment on that in a negative way, but that was the whole point of the intro track. The chorus was talking about how people just keep singing along to the same song, how everybody is influenced by everything and it's this constant regurgitation of what's going on. So you might as well embrace that and enjoy and respect your influences instead of trying to pretend that everything you're doing is 100 per cent original.